Microsoft Unveils Details of its Innovative HoloLens

By: Gizbot Bureau

Published: Thursday, April 30, 2015, 12:23 [IST]

Less than 100 days after it informed to the world about its innovative HoloLens, Microsoft presented a live demonstration of what it called as the world's first, and only, fully untethered holographic computer powered by Windows 10.

"That's just magical stuff," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, told a house-full gathering of developers on the first day of the three-day annual Build 15 conference in San Francisco, after a scintillating live demonstration of the HoloLens, a headset that displays 3-D holograms in augmented reality.

However, the launch date of HoloLens has not been announced yet. During the key note address yesterday, Microsoft officials shared how HoloLens is helping Trimble and its customers visualise building designs in the context of real world objects and landscapes, giving them the ability to walk around designs while clients view them remotely and see street side how a building is going to look.

They also showed how medical students at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic learn procedures without ever picking up a scalpel. HoloLens opens up an altogether new vista of imagination and usefulness in the world of internet and computing  that has applications in every aspects of life to profession.

Alex Kipman from the device categories in Operating System Group at Microsoft, said Holograms are already being sculpted by some of the most creative people around. "Now with this ability to design and shape holograms you have a new medium to express your creativity, to visualise your work and share ideas.

"Your digital creations become so much more relevant when they come to life in the real world. "But, that's just the beginning of what holograms can enable," he said. Windows Holographics also provides with a unique opportunity to change how one teaches and learn in more effective ways.

Kipman said from NASA JPL to Trimble, to Case Western, are just a few of the partners that the Microsoft is actively collaborating with to transform different industries now that holograms have become part of everyday life.

"As we enter this decade the amount of processing power you can get into a small form factor for a reasonable price point is just staggering.

"Even in the last few years as we developed HoloLens the innovation in optics, sensors and silicon has allowed us to move forward a few orders of magnitude," he said.

"Now people used to say computers today can do enough, my apps run just fine, the Internet runs just fine, what are we going to do with all of this extra computing power? And the answer to that is that we are going to put a different emphasis on it," he added.

"New workloads focus on solving brand-new problems. In other words, we are going to start using all of this power specifically to help us understand humans and the world around us," he said.

With Windows holograms universal Windows apps and all universal Windows apps can be made to work on Windows Holographic, he said, adding this opens up a new vein of innovation and a new vein of opportunity.

"With holograms you'll have a new canvas to express your creativity. "Your apps can come to life and they can be experienced naturally in the world around you," Kipman said.